The thesis argues for a particular character to high density environments that manages a diverse system of continuities and extensions within the existing fragmented urban fabric. Emerging concepts of open schools are being used as an organizing device for a new piece of the city that establishes variations within a morphological consistency. This new planning logic allows us to integrate the waterside into the surrounding fabric, in order to gain value from its integration as a resource for new ways of living and working, at the base of a learning landscape. All these are tested in Vauxhall that is strategically located in inner peripheral London and morphologically combines the challenges of a fragmented urban fabric. By introducing new elements in the urban lexicon, the challenge is to generate not only the density but to develop the quality of an environment that manages a mixture of different functions and at the same time works as an integrated piece of the entire system, achieving a continuous balance within the contradictory conditions.